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Saturday, January 24, 2015

Flannel Friday - AlphaGator

I have seen this done many different ways. I forgot I even had it, actually! This little story is called AlphaGator and I am not sure of where the original comes from.

Alpha-Gator
There once was an Alpha-Gator, who absolutely adored the alphabet. He ate the alphabet and had sweet alphabet dreams all night long.
On Monday, he ate the letters A,B,C,D,E, and F. Then he closed his eyes to get some sleep, but the pointy part of A kept poking him in the tummy and he couldn't sleep a wink all night long!
On Tuesday, he ate the letters G,H,I,J, and K. Then he closed his eyes to get some sleep but the letters H and I made a word and it kept saying "HI-HI-HI-HI" and he couldn't sleep a wink all night long!
On Wednesday, he ate the letters L,M,N,O, and P. Then he closed his eyes to get some sleep but the O kept rolling around and around in his tummy and he couldn't sleep a wink all night long!
On Thursday, he ate the letters Q,R,S,T,U, and V. Then he closed his eyes to get some sleep but the S kept saying SSSSSSSSS and playing 'snake' in his tummy and he couldn't sleep a wink all night long!
On Friday, he ate the letters W,X,Y, and Z. Then he closed his eyes to get some sleep. He dreamed of sweet ZZZZZZZZZZZs all night long!
See ya later, Alpha-Gator!

My gator gives off a glare because of the quality of the paper I used. He is created from 12x12 scrapbook card stock - with an extension to his tail. His belly, however is actually made of felt! This is so the letters can be placed in his belly while you are reading the rhyme.
The letters shown here are foam letters, but I think next time I use this rhyme, it might be worth my time to trace these and cut them out in felt because the sticker backing to these letters made re-use difficult...that is why only some of the letters are shown here.

Now where did I use this? I had it as part of several story times. My Letter of the Month story time for A used this, as well as my Alligator story time and my Back to School story time. I am sure I can find more uses for him too. You don't always need to stay perfectly on theme. If you have a hole in your story time, don't try to force something in there for the sake of the theme. Pull out some favorites. The kids will appreciate the familiarity and love it when they can anticipate what is coming.